Ex-New Brunswick official admits trying to hire hit man to kill wife

A former New Brunswick city official admitted this morning that he hatched an elaborate plan to have his estranged wife killed while he was behind bars on bribery charges.

Richard Kaplan, a former city construction official, pleaded guilty to murder for hire before U.S. District Judge Joseph Irenas in Camden.

Kaplan acknowledged asking a fellow inmate to find him a hired killer, then instructed the hit man to kill his wife of 24 years, Margherita, in a staged car accident. The fellow inmate went to prosecutors with the information, authorities said, and the hit man Kaplan tried to hire was an undercover FBI agent.

At the time of the plot, which began late last year, Kaplan was serving a 30-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, Cumberland County. In October, he had pleaded guilty to taking more than $30,000 in bribes while he was a New Brunswick city construction official.

Kaplan could face an additional nine to 10 years in prison for the new charges under federal sentencing guidelines.